Birds of a Feather
by Tabbyluna
Summary: He didn't realise that he walked down that path early in the morning. But that wasn't the only thing they had in common, much to his surprise.


He was surprised to see Air Strike up so early. During his morning run with Fright, he rarely came across anyone running the same path. Neither Skylander nor civilian, it was always just him and his ostrich. That was largely due to the strong stench of rotting garbage which came with running past an organic waste landfill. Both of them never minded the smell, in large part thanks to Rider's upbringing near a compost farm. But seeing the old Sensei out with his bird, that piqued Rider's curiosity. He walked towards him, waving at the old man.

"Yo, Air Strike! Fancy seeing you here so early!" He called out. Air Strike heard his call, and turned to face him, a small smile on his face.

"Oh, hello Rider, Ozzy," he greeted, gently nodding his head at them. Upon hearing his old name, Fright cocked his head to one side. As if he suspected that he was talking about him, but he wasn't quite sure, and needed to check with his Master.

"Ah ha, I see you've read our official records. Technically, yes, the name on his adoption certificate is Ozzy. But I renamed him Fright before our first jousting competition." He allowed Fright to nuzzle him by the crook of his neck, and he returned the show of affection with a pat to his head. "You know, fourteen year old me thought that 'Fright Rider' sounded way cooler than 'Rider and Ozzy'." He blushed slightly, embarrassed by the strange ideas in his youth.

"Ah, and afterwards the name stuck, I assume?" Asked Air Strike. Rider looked down, and saw that he had a brown bag in his hands. He made a note to ask him what was in that after he answered his question.

"Heh, yeah." He turned to see what Air Strike had been looking at earlier, and noted how there was something visibly fluttering and hovering around the giant mound of organic waste. "Hey, is that Birdie?" He asked, recalling the name of his Blue Zephyr Falcon from a conversation with Master Eon.

He nodded. "It is indeed. I've taken him out here for him to get some breakfast."

Rider watched the falcon fly every which way. Up and down, left and right, around and around the giant mound of rubbish. He knew that Blue Zephyr Falcons had a diet which mostly consisted of small rodents, but why did he need to come all the way down here to catch some rats? "Are there... any more rodents back in the Academy?" He asked. They were pretty far from the Academy, so it would seem like a pain to get here just to stand and watch a bird hunt.

"There used to be. But Birdie can be a bit of an eager hunter. I think he hunted down too many, because now there barely seem to be any at all back at the Academy."

Rider nodded. Now that he mentioned it, there were a lot less rats scurrying around now. He never really paid attention to that, but now that it was brought to his attention, it was now locked into his mind. "So, what's in the bag?" He pointed to it. Air Strike answered his question by opening it, and pulling out a small loaf of bread.

Usually, Rider was not a fan of plain bread. Fright was afraid of several sandwich fillings too, so he never really ate sandwiches if he could help it either. But, he had to admit, the bread looked delicious. With its light brown crust surrounding the airy, milky white centre, it looked perfectly baked. No burns or raw dough in sight. A few seconds later, the aroma of the bread wafted into his nose, emphasising the freshness of the bread. Had he still needed food to live, he was certain that his stomach would have started to growl, and his mouth would have watered.

Fright started to squawk at the bread as soon as saw it. It was a familiar sound to Rider, he made that noise every time he spotted something which scared him. "Whoa, calm down boy. It's alright. It's just a plain loaf of bread, there's nothing in there than could hurt you." Rider, tugged at his reins, stroking Fright's spine gently until the ostrich stopped squawking and cooled himself down.

"I'm sorry about that, Air Strike. Fright's had quite a few irrational fears in his life, including sandwich fillings. That was why I never really ate much bread when I was alive." He rubbed the back of his neck. It was quite a warm morning, and though his skin was still as cool and as dry as ever, he was certain that he would have been sweating if he was not a member of the Undead.

It's been years since he had 'died', and he was still comparing every little sensation to how it should have felt if he was 'alive'. He wondered if he should be concerned about that. Was it normal to hang on to something like this? He supposed it should be, but he never really talked to anyone else about it.

"Oh, that's no problem. I've worked with birds my entire life, I know how some of them can get." He winked, and took a bite out of the bread. Watching him chew his bread, Rider knew deep in his gut that he should ask him for a piece. It was morning, he hadn't eaten anything yet. Not a crumb. It should be the natural progression of events. And from there they would continue to talk about life and whatever events are coming up, as a normal conversation should go.

But he still felt no need for food. No growls in his tummy, no desires to taste anything. And he had no real conversation topics on his mind. Standing next to him, he felt incredibly awkward. As if something was supposed to happen, but nothing did. Air Strike kept chewing his bread, Birdie kept diving after rats. And Rider was standing quietly beside them, Fright gently nuzzling his neck.

"I think we should really go now," he said. He gave Fright's head a pat, then gave his reins a tug. "There's nothing for us to talk about, so I think I should let you eat in peace instead of wasting your time."

Air Strike swallowed his bread, but before he took his next bite, he spoke up. "What do you have planned?"

"Well, nothing really. I don't really have a patrol scheduled until much later, and all the training facilities are booked today." When he went to sign up yesterday evening, he was surprised to see that, of all people, Nightfall had signed up for an early morning slot. Thanks to the ever-growing number of Imaginators and new recruits, Master Eon had arranged to build more training facilities. For now though, there definitely were not enough for everyone. And Rider had actually started going on these walks to kill time.

It was weird, being a fighter for peace and justice. You only knew you were doing your job right when you did not need to do your job. He would feel proud, if he did not feel so restless too.

Air Strike smiled. It was the kind, wise smile which could only be earned after years of experience, years of seeing the world and doing good. That smile - strangely enough - was very calming to look at.

"If you have nothing to do, why not stay and enjoy the sun rising with me?"

Rider blinked. "But we have nothing to talk about."

"We do not use our mouths to see, do we?"

"We would be wasting time by doing that."

"What do you have to do, which takes up so much of your time?"

It was a strange feeling, as he walked back to Air Strike's side, Fright in tow. For so long, it had been non-stop action. Everyday, a new evil needed to be defeated. There were always facilities open, so you had no excuse to not train. He had been less powerful then. More naive, less experienced. But now, he could so easily defeat a horde of enemies. He even needed to do some of his own reading to get more powerful. He had become, truly become, a veteran.

But at the same time, he still felt so lost, so childlike, in more ways than one. That was his strongest feeling while he watched Birdie, Fright nuzzling him on his right, Air Strike eating bread to his left. It was strange. He felt ashamed of himself, even though he knew he shouldn't. There was nothing to do. He should stop and smell the roses. It's been several years since there had been any real conflict. So why couldn't he relax?

"You seem antsy," noted Air Strike.

Rider licked his lips, thinking about what to say. "It just feels weird to… not have anything big to work towards, you know? No great missions or anything. There's just… it's just too peaceful now." He had a lot more to say, but for some reason, he couldn't find the right words for it. And that was the worst part about this feeling that's been plaguing him. There was something inside which he should let out, but he didn't know how. Bonding with other people needed a certain level of language proficiency, but if you can't find the right words to say anything, you were pretty much forced to suffer in silence. And after spending all that time with the Skylanders, suffering in silence was something he wasn't used to.

Air Strike nodded. "It's all part of the learning curve of being a soldier. Eventually, you will learn to enjoy long periods of peace. Don't worry, and just be patient," said Air Strike. But his tone was not judgemental. Not at all. It was weird, but that tone of voice seemed… sympathetic. As if he knew where he was at the present. As if he had been there before.

Three lines. That was all he said before he carried on with eating his bread. But those words sat with Rider. Sank to the bottom of his heart, as if they were engraving themselves into him. It was strange, he felt impacted by those words, but for the life of him he didn't know why. But it made him feel all melancholic inside. It reminded him of his younger days, when he was a new Skylander, and every talk with a veteran or with Eon lead to some sort of food for thought. It's been a long while since he heard something that made him feel that way. Especially how it almost seemed like Air Strike read his mind. He wasn't sure how he fully understood how he felt with only a few words, but at that point he was too comforted to care.

He would spend the rest of the day thinking long and hard about those words. And he spent the next few minutes thinking and mulling and stewing over those words. All while he alternated his attention between Air Strike, Birdie, and Fright, as the sun rose slowly over them.


End file.
